8 Ballet Dancer Habits Your Non-Dance Friends Think Are Weird

We’ve all experienced it. You pitch forward to crack a hip and the resulting pop is so loud that your friend panics and starts to dial emergency. And you’re only just getting started…

#2. Watching TV in obscure positions

Whether you’re in second splits, a pretzel stretch, or just lying in a casual frog or butterfly, you’re used to ignoring the fascinated, sideways glances you get when you’re just hanging out.

#3. Standing in 4th position, or 2nd, or anything that’s not vaguely parallel

Well, when you’ve trained your whole life to perfect certain positions, why would you spend your non-dance time not standing in them?

#4. Walking turned out

As in point #3… you want me to walk parallel?!

#5. Marking choreography with your hands

Standing at the bus stop (in 4th, of course), headphones on and listening to your new solo music, and you find yourself marking out the choreography using only your hands. The outside world has no idea what those strange little flicks and quirks are – it’s your own secret language!

#6. Unconsciously doing tendus, or petit battement, or rises…

When cleaning your teeth, waiting in line at the supermarket, on the phone or standing around chatting to someone, chances are you are practicing something.

#7. Lying with your legs up the wall

Seriously, what is weird about lying with your legs up the wall? It’s been a long day of rehearsals and your body needs to recover! And there’s nothing strange about stretching up the wall either, is there?

#8. Being unable to sit still

Marking a petit allegro with your feet under the dinner table, pirouetting around the living room or dropping to the floor at any given moment to bust out some Pilates exercises – believe it or not, this is not ‘normal person’ behaviour. And that’s why you’re special. Have you ever seen a meadow you didn’t want to grand jete across?